Intro to Grasshopper

Running Grasshopper

Grasshopper should already be installed on the all the IDeATE Windows laptops.

In Windows start box select Rhinocerous 5 (64-bit).

After Rhino starts up, close both RhinoCam tabs and minimize the
help pane on the right.

In the Rhino command box, type "Grasashopper" and hit Enter.

Accept the license terms.

Resize the Rhino and Grasshopper windows so they are next to each
other and don't cover each other.

Making a Spiral Array

To make a number slider, double click in the canvas to call up a
search box and type "0 &lt 1 &lt 10".

Make another number slider as "0 < 0.1 < 0.5". Put it below the first one.

Make a third number slider as "1 < 50 < 200".

Click on the Sets tab.

Find the Sequence palette, and click on the down-arrow to reveal
the entire palette.

Click and drag a Series component on the canvas.

Go to the Display pulldown menu and turn on Draw Icons and
Draw Fancy Wires. Tun off Draw full Names. Try toggling the Draw Icons
and Draw Full Names settings to see their effect.

Hover over the S, N, and C labels (not the nodes) to get pop-up help.

Connect the first slider to the series component's S (starting
value) input by clicking on the slider's output node and dragging the
mouse to the series component's S input node.

Connect the second slider to the N (step size) input.

Collect the third slider to the C (count) input.

Replacing a connection: connect the first slider to the C input
node and this replaces the connection from the third slider to the C
input. (If you want to keep the old connection around, use
shift-click when drawing the new connection.)

Deleting a connection: put the mouse on the source node (watch
the mouse pointer change shape), hold down the Control button, and
draw the connection you want to eliminate.

Using a Panel to View Data

Hover over the series component's S output label and observe the
data.

Go tothe Params tab, and from the Input Palette, drag a Panel component on the canvas. Put it to the right of and below the Series component.

Connect the Series component's S output to the Panel component's input. use the scoll bar to view the data.

Navigating the Canvas

The right mouse button translates.

The scroll wheel (or
Control-right button) zooms.

The little navigation aide in the bottom right corner points
toward your model.

Points On A Circle

Go to the Maths tab, and form the Trig palette insert a Cos
component and a Sin component to the right of the Series component.
Stack them one above the other.

Connect the output of the series component to the inputs of the
Cos and Sin components.

Hover over the "y" output labels to see the values.

Go to the Vector tab, and from the Point palette select a
Construct Point component (first icon). Place it to the right of the
Cos and Sin components.

Connect the Sin component to the X input and the Cos component to
the Y input. Leave the Z input unconnected.

Hover over the Pt output and observe the values.

Look in the Rhino window and you will see the points displayed.
They form rouhgly 3/4 of a circle.

Move the Count slider and observe the effect. Set the count to 20.

Move the Step slider and observe the effect.

Double click on the Step slider and type in the value 0.045.

Right click on the Step slider and drag the "number of digits"
slider from 1 to 2 digits.

Set the slider parameters back to 1 / 0.1 / 50.

Making a Spiral

Go to the Maths tab and from the Operators palette, insert a Multiply component.

Connect the Pt output of the Construct Point component to the A
input of the Muliply component.

Connect the S output of the Series compnent to the B input of the Multiply component.

Look in the Rhino window and you'll see two sets of points.

Click on a componen in the Grasshopper window; when the component
turns green, so do its points. Points belonging to other components
are shown in red.

Right click on the Construct Point box and disable Preview to hide its points.

Go to the Curve tab and from the Spline palette select Interpolate. Put
the component to the right of and below the Multiply component.

Connect the output R of the Multiply component to the vertices
input (V) of the interpolate component.